I bought a $30 package to get across... I hate that! Packages are for travel wimps... not to mention the expense... but I thought it'd be safer.

The trip starts great... the Brits I'm still with & I are driven to the border in the nicest truck I've been in yet. We were warned there's an unofficial $1 Laos departure tax but when I step up the officer looks me up & down & says $2 & that's US dollars, not his own currency. I bitch, moan, ask to see this in writing. But he doesn't budge... I relent but demand a receipt with his name. He pulls out a receipt book & I decide it might actually be legit. But then one of the Brits step up & says he's not American & so he doesn't have US dollars... nice approach... his payment - $1.50 local currency.

But it's not over... we're officially out of Laos but not in Cambodia yet. (Would that be No Man's Land?) And the stupid company we purchased the trip from drives away in the nice truck & tells us this other guy, who can't speak English, will take us in this van that's falling apart... & we're supposed to wait at this soup shack, probably owned by a cousin or someone who'll give 'em a commission. After about 30 minutes, one of the other Brits from the island shows up... & he's only paid $1 to the officer.

this is the immigration office

So we're at this first crossing, which is not a physical crossing, just a place to get a stamp in your passport & these officials are demanding $2 per person for the stamp. One of the Brits says ok but I need a receipt & the official says "$1 - no receipt". Now we know for sure it's bogus. But they still want money & they're holding the passports. You can't go anywhere in the world without your passport...it's the most valuable thing you carry while traveling. But they don't have my passport, & I'm feeling feisty... so I pull out my camera & start asking the officials if I can take their photo. Ok, yeah, that was probably stupid... one of the Brits pulls me away & tells me not to get arrested. During this the group gets away without paying.

Now the group is officially in Cambodia, I'm officially nowhere & physically we're all back in the soup shack. Waiting to squeeze more westerners into the decrypted van. But while we're waiting, the group forms a plan to get me through the border sans baksheesh.

And it works. I first go to one official to get the visa. He wants $22; I know the price is $20... & I tell him I know the price is only $20. At this point I'm pretty crabby... I put a twenty on the table, stare him down for awhile then grab my passport & ask "ok?" I leave without getting shot in the back. Let me add that everyone in both Laos & Cambodia carry automatic weapons.

Next I have to get the stamp my friends got at the last stop. I get the stamp & then this group of officials demand their pretend $2 fee... but the British guys crowd around me, & one, who's 6'5", moves next to a Cambodian official half his size & ever so nicely says he'd like my passport back. They hand it to me & I thank them.

But the crappy day is not yet over.... next we're driven to a river & our driver points to a leaky canoe of a ferry & says goodbye. Where's he going? What are we supposed to do next? And why the fuck aren't we using the bridge down the road? But the guy doesn't really speak English... so we get in the boat.

When we cross we do find another van & driver & are once again instructed to eat at someone's cousin's restaurant. Plus it's now 2pm & that's when we were supposed to arrive at our final destination that's still 3hrs away.

Another hour later our original group plus 4 more westerners & a local lady with black teeth & a chicken squeeze inside a different van while 2 more locals ride on top.

It's now late afternoon & the sun is casting long shadows & one of the westerners notice from the shadows that the guys on top of the van are going through our bags up there. We quickly devise a plan to demand to pull over to pee & then I'll sit on top & watch our stuff... when I lived in Nepal I'd only ride on the top of a bus... I love it & I was excited to do it. It was so wonderfully freeing up there that all the crap from the day just kind of blew away!